Gary Dicker

Gary Dicker signed for Kilmarnock from Carlisle United on deadline day - 1st February 2016. He penned an 18-month deal with an option for a further year.

From his Wikipedia:

Born in Dublin, Dicker began his career at League of Ireland side UCD. He joined from his local junior club Cherry Orchard and was gradually introduced into the first team through substitute appearances towards the latter end of UCD's successful 2004 First Division campaign. Gary progressed his way into a regular starting position the following season and successfully partnered Tony McDonnell in central midfield for the 2005 and 2006 Premier Division seasons. During his time at UCD he earned underage honours for Ireland at U-19 and U-21 level.

In the 2006 League of Ireland close season he spent a loan spell at Championship side Birmingham City, but he never made it past the reserve team. He made his debut for the Birmingham City reserves against Stoke City Reserves, which Birmingham won 3–0. The Birmingham reserve team coach, Keith Bertschin, described Dicker as a 'very decent player. He's a good technical player, who can see and put in some lovely weighted passes and is decent with both feet'.

He officially signed for Stockport County on 29 May 2007, for a fee of just £40,000. He signed a contract until 1 July 2010. He played a regular part in Stockport's 2007–08 League Two campaign and took part in a promotion for the second time in his career as County successfully negotiated their way into League One via the playoffs.

On 26 March 2009, Dicker initially joined League One side Brighton & Hove Albion on loan for the remainder of the season, where he made nine appearances for the Seagulls, scoring one goal during this spell. On 25 June 2009, Dicker, joined Brighton & Hove Albion on a free transfer, signing a two-year contract. On 28 April 2011, having helped Brighton secure promotion to the Championship, Dicker was rewarded with a two-year contract extension.

Dicker, alongside Vicente and Marcos Painter were released at the expiration of their contracts on 16 May 2013.

On 27 June 2014, Dicker signed a two-year deal with League Two side Carlisle United. He was allowed to leave on February 1st 2016 and joined Kilmarnock on an initial 18-month deal.

Comments To The Press

1st February 2016: “I’m looking forward to joining the team at Kilmarnock and hopefully making a valuable contribution over the course of the next few weeks”.

February 24th 2016: “The club hotel where I’m living is literally facing the stadium, I’m still looking at places to live. With a family, it takes a bit of time moving up. The club have been good to me that way. I’ve been all over the place, (laughs the Irishman) To be honest, I knew I wasn’t going to get another contract at Carlisle. When I spoke to [owner] John Nixon about sorting out the move here, I don’t think he wanted me to go. But I’ve got to look after myself and my family. Everyone has to look after themselves in this game.”

Dicker says he approached Curle after the manager informed a press conference that United had rejected a Conference loan bid for him. “I don’t think any Conference team came in for me, to be honest, I don’t know what that was about. Maybe it was a misunderstanding. In the week leading up to the York game [on January 23], my agent had spoken to him [Curle], but I didn’t speak to him until the Tuesday after. I’d read what he had said and didn’t really understand it. So I asked him about the supposed interest and that’s when he said Kilmarnock. I said I’d be interested to speak to them and he said that’s fine.”

Erm…I think it did. It’s life – not everyone’s going to have a rosy relationship all the time. You’ve got to accept that rather than sit with a face on you. Sometimes your face fits, sometimes it doesn’t. I think what went on…I was disappointed with how I was treated a bit. That’s all. It’s in the past now, done with. People inside the club know what went on. Everyone knows it was kind of wrong. I’m not going to go over it – it’s boring for everyone. I got on great with people at the club, the chairman, staff, everyone, and I won’t have a bad word to say about any of the lads.”

I’ve said it before – you’re in the shop window every day in football. A list doesn’t make any difference to me. I don’t think the other lads who are on it are fussed by it either. It’s a piece of paper with your name on it. I just had to concentrate on what I could do on the pitch.”

Last season (at Carlisle) was one of those we were waiting to get started and it never did. It was battering the ball up and down the pitch and trying to survive, which you can understand. This year we’ve played a lot more football and I’ve been showing what I’m capable of.

I offered a lot more this year. I don’t think it ended on a sour note. It’s a good club and the stuff that’s gone on this year, after the floods and the Everton [FA Cup] game, shows what sort of club it is and the potential it’s got.

Being a Celtic fan – it’s part of being Irish, isn’t it? – I was getting enough texts and phonecalls that week,” he says. “It was a great game to start with. I’m getting used to playing with the lads now. The manager has come in with fresh ideas and it’s a new voice to listen to. He [Clark] has had acouple of hard spells at clubs [Blackpool and Birmingham] that have been uneasy off the pitch, but he did a good job at Huddersfield and he’s still a young manager, enthusiastic, wants to do well. Sometimes something just feels right and you think, yeah, I wouldn’t mind a bit of that, All you want is to be wanted, whether you’re playing here or in the park. I don’t think anyone likes training Monday to Friday and not playing on Saturday. You’re a long time retired. I want to play football at the end of the day. And just be happy.” (Ahhhh!) - Carlisle News & Star, Jon Colman, 24th February 2016

July 27th 2016: “Do I think it’s hard to read into results so early? Yes and no. We’ve got a lot of young players who have learned more on Saturday than they have in the past two years at their previous clubs where they weren’t playing first-team football. Everyone’s down your neck when you’re not playing well – it’s football. Looking at the bigger picture, a lot of these players were playing together for the first time. When you move from under–20s to senior football you pick up how the game is played and that it means something. When you come from under–age and into the first team people are fighting for different things. You’re fighting for a better career and you’re playing for your family and to pay bills so it’s a different kettle of fish – you’re playing against men. Even players in the league below, they’re playing at that level, but they know the game and they know what they’re doing. It is a good learning curve for all the young players. Is it better to get this out of the way now? Too right. Nobody likes getting beat but it doesn’t mean it’s panic stations straight away because you lost one game. But the games are important because you want to win matches bin order to breed confidence. It is strange, to be fair. It’s weird in a way because even Clyde had a few games before they played us. It’s hard to cram the games in because you’re still doing your work on the training ground. It’s hard balancing it all. We need to get back used to playing because everyone’s a bit rusty. You gel a bit more with games.” David Wren - Daily Record- July 27th 2016

May 1st 2017: “We want to finish seventh, be top of our pile, and that’s a good start. We have four games left and we need to keep going and get the points on the board. You look at the table and we are top of our pile and that’s where we want to stay. We want to finish seventh and it doesn’t matter what everyone else does — we need to look after ourselves. There’s pressure here every day, pressure just to stay in the team. We’re not just looking at the Dundee game and then kicking into holiday mode after that. We want to finish seventh because that will help the club financially. As a team, we want to be as high as we can because no one gave us a chance. After the League Cup everyone was battering us really, saying we had no chance and talking about all the players we had brought in.

On keeper Freddie Woodman: “He’s been outstanding but we’re lucky because we have two outstanding goalkeepers, which you usually don’t get at this level. Normally, you have one who is first team and one you would probably call back up but we have two great goalies and you have to give Jamie MacDonald a lot of credit as well — he trains unbelievably hard each day. We are happy we’ve got two of the best goalkeepers in the league. Freddie has a great chance. He has a fantastic attitude, as do most of our young lads.”

“There are 11 guys out there keeping the clean sheet and wanting to do well. We have a good group here, with people looking to help each other out. Spirit should be a given. These are the simple things that you expect everyone to do. That’s what makes a good team, with everyone wanting to keep the ball out of the net.”